Qatar plans for single supervisor

Qatar has said it will introduce one regulator to supervise the banking, insurance, securities and asset-management industries by early 2008.H.E Yousef Hussain Kamal, Qatar’s finance minister, said: “This initiative, aimed at creating a best-practice legal and regulatory environment for Qatar’s entire financial sector, illustrates the government’s commitment to the development of a thriving financial services industry.”The new regulator will handle work dispersed among the Qatar Central Bank’s Department of Banking Supervision and its Banking Consumer services unit, the Qatar Financial Markets Authority, and the Qatar Financial Centre Financial Regulatory Authority.